PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an integrative weight control program including East Asian traditional medicine on the degree of obesity and body compositions. METHOD: Using one group pre-post test design, 63 subjects aged 19 years or older were conveniently recruited from D University hospital. The weight control program consisted of acupuncture, aerobic exercise, moderate caloric restriction, and behavioral modification for weight loss. Paired t-tests were conducted using the SPSS V18.0. RESULTS: Body weight (t=10.44, p<.001), body fat mass (t=11.47, p<.001), percentage of body fat (t=11.49, p<.001), the degree of obesity (t=10.48, p<.001), body mass index (t=10.66, p<.001), waist circumference (t=10.25, p<.001), hip circumference (t=6.10, p<.001), and WHR (t=2.21, p=.040) decreased after administering the integrative weight control program. CONCLUSION: This integrative weight control program effectively reduced the obesity degree and percentage of body fat. Further study is needed to replicate our program in a larger sample with control group to validate the findings.
Acupuncture ; Adipose Tissue ; Aged ; Body Composition ; Body Mass Index ; Body Weight ; Caloric Restriction ; Diet ; Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Exercise ; Hip ; Humans ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Obesity ; Waist Circumference ; Weight Loss

The present study was attempted to investigate and compare the antioxidant potency of several well-know flavonoids, antioxidant vitamin and commercially available popular beverages. The antioxidant potency was assessed by the effect on reducing oxidative DNA damage of human lymphocytes. Cellular oxidative DNA damage was measured by SCGE (single-cell gel electrophoresis), also known as comet assay. Lymphocytes were pre-treated for 30 minutes with wide ranges of doses of apigenin, kaempferol, luteolin, myricetin, rutin, quercetin, alpha-tocopherol (10,25,50,100,200,500,1000 micrometer) ,green tea extract or grape juice (10,50,100,250,500,1000 microgram/mL) followed by a H2O2(100 micrometer) treatment for 5 min as an oxidative stimulus. The physiological function of each antioxidant substance on oxidative DNA damage was analyzed as tail moment (tail length X percentage migrated DNA in tail) and expressed as relative DNA damage score after adjusting by the level of control treatment. Cells treated with H2O2 alone (positive control) had an extensive DNA damage compared with cells treated with phosphate buffered saline (PBS, negative control) or pre-treated with all the tested samples. Of all the six flavonoids, quercetin was the most potent antioxidant showing the lowest ED50 of 8.5 microgram/mL (concentration to produce 50% protection of relative DNA damage). The antoxidant potency of individual flavonoids were ranked as follows in a decreasing order; luteolin (18.4 microgram/mL), myricetin (19.0 microgram/mL) , rutin (22.2 microgram/mL) , apigenin (24,3 microgram/mL) , kaempferol (25.5 microgram/mL). The protective effect of alpha-tocopherol was substantially lower (highest ED50 value of 55.0 microgram/mL) than all the other flavonoids, while the protective effect was highest in green tea and grape juice with low ED5O value of 7.6 and 5.3, respectively. These results suggest that flavonoids, especially quercetin, and natural compounds from food product, green tea and grape juice, produced powerful anti-oxidative activities, even stronger than alpha-tocopherol. Taken together, supplementation of antioxidants to lymphocytes followed by oxidative stimulus inhibited damage to cellular DNA, supporting a protective effect against oxidative damage induced by reactive oxygen species.
alpha-Tocopherol ; Antioxidants ; Apigenin ; Beverages ; Comet Assay* ; DNA Damage* ; DNA* ; Flavonoids* ; Humans ; Luteolin ; Lymphocytes* ; Quercetin ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Rutin ; Tea ; Vitamins ; Vitis

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of a safety management program on safety accident-related knowledge, attitude and behavior of elementary school students in Korea. METHODS: This study adopted nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The number of subjects was 34 in the experimental group and 31 in the control group. The safety management program was performed for approximately 50 minutes each session, once a week for 8 weeks. Data were collected from March 14th to June 23th, 2006, and analyzed by chi2 test and independent t-test with SPSS WIN 16.0. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences in safety-related knowledge (t=3.010, p=.006) and behavior (t=18.833, p=.001) between the experimental group and the control group. The score of attitude was different between the experimental group and the control group but the difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The safety management program used in this study was appropriate for elemental school students and affected safety-related knowledge and behavior of elementary school students. Therefore safety education should be provided systematically for elementary schools over the whole country.
Accident Prevention ; Education ; Humans ; Korea* ; Safety Management*

In this study the in vitro protective effects of several antioxidant vitamins (vitamin C, alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene), fruits and vegetables (strawberry, tangerine, orange and 100% orange juice, carrot juice), on the levels of isolated human lymphocyte DNA damage was measured using Comet assay. Comet assay has been used widely to assess the level of the DNA damage in the individual cells. Lymphocytes were pre-treated for 30 minutes with antioxidant vitamins (10, 50, 100, 500 micrometer) or fruits. vegetables (10, 100, 500, 1000 microgram/ml), an4 then oxidatively challenged with 100 micrometer H2O2 for 5 min at 4degrees C. The protective effect of antioxidant vitamins against DNA damage at a concentration of 50 micrometer were 50% in vitamin C, 32% in alpha-tocopherol, whereas, beta-carotene showed a 55% protection at a dose as low as 10micrometer. The inhibitory effects of DNA damage by strawberry, tangerine, orange, orange juices, carrot juices were 50 - 60% with wide ranges of doses. The results of the present study indicate that most the antioxidant vitamins and fruits.vegetables juices produced a significant reduction in oxidative DNA damage.
alpha-Tocopherol ; Ascorbic Acid ; beta Carotene ; Citrus sinensis ; Comet Assay* ; Daucus carota ; DNA Damage* ; DNA* ; Fragaria ; Fruit* ; Humans* ; Lymphocytes* ; Vegetables* ; Vitamins*

Deer Antler has been known for its traditional oriental medicinal properties and has been widely used to promote growth, boost immune function, treat blood loss and chronic joint pain. Recent study showed imported (New Zealand) Deer Antler was beneficial in reducing the side effects of cancer treatments. However, there was no intervention study conducted on the effect of Korean Deer Antler on reducing the oxidative stress to patients with diabetes. One of the sensitive ways to measure endogenous oxidative stress is by measuring cellular DNA damage using single cell gel electrophoresis (COMET assay). This study was conducted to investigate the possible beneficial effect of commercial Deer Antler drink (provided by Chung-yang Deer Farm) on lymphocyte DNA damage and blood glucose of diabetic patients. Ten patients (4 men, 6 women) participated in the study and consumed 2 pouches of Deer Antler drink every day for 20 days. Blood was collected on the morning before and after the intervention for lymphocyte isolation and blood glucose analysis. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure showed a tendency to decrease but did not reach statistical significance after the trial. Blood glucose level was not affected by the supplementation. After the intervention, over 50% reduction were noted in the cellular DNA damage, expressed as tail length (TL) and tail moment (TM; tail length x percent tail DNA). Although we did not obtain beneficial effect on lowering blood glucose levels in the patients, this results suggest that Deer Antler may initially act in protecting endogenous DNA damage in short-term experiment.
Animals ; Antlers* ; Arthralgia ; Blood Glucose* ; Blood Pressure* ; Clinical Trial ; Deer* ; DNA Damage* ; DNA* ; Electrophoresis ; Humans ; Lymphocytes* ; Male ; Oxidative Stress

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this investigation was to analyze the association between ovarian tumor markers and the clinicopathologic features of ovarian mature cystic teratoma. METHODS: The medical records of 195 patients whose pathologic diagnosis were made as mature cystic teratoma after surgery from June, 2000 to July, 2006 at Ewha Womans University Mok-dong Hospital were reviewed. The proportions of elevation of each tumor marker were evaluated in all patients and CA19-9 which showed the greatest elevation rate was selected as a promising relevant tumor marker. The patients were alloted to either Group I showing elevated CA19-9 or Group II showing normal level of CA19-9. The relationship between CA19-9 level and demographic data or clinicopathologic features were investigated by usual statistical method. RESULTS: The mean age of all patients was 35.4+/-12.8, and the average size of tumor was 7.1+/-3.5cm. Bilaterality of the mature cystic teratoma was 12.8%. The proportion of the patients showing elevated levels was greatest in CA19-9 as 33.3% (65/195), compared with 12.0% in CA-125, 5.8% in CEA, 1.1% in AFP. Significant difference between Group I and Group II were found in age, parity, tumor size, and bilaterality. Bilaterality and tumor size were greater in Group I, and age and proportion of parous women were lower in Group I. On the other hand, the rate of ovarian torsion or laparotomy conversion showed no difference. Likelihood ratio for bilaterality which may be clinically used during surgical procedure were 2.2 for CA19-9 suggesting its potential role in gynecologic practice. CONCLUSION: This study shows that CA19-9 may be a useful tumor marker associated with tumor size and bilaterality in ovarian mature cystic teratoma. Further confirmative study with larger sample size is in need in order to establish its definite clinical role in ovarian mature cystic teratoma.
Diagnosis ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Laparotomy ; Medical Records ; Ovary* ; Parity ; Sample Size ; Teratoma* ; Biomarkers, Tumor

In the case of edentulous patients, the total amount of occlusal force is dispersed by the keratinized gingiva during mastication, in result, causing lower masticatory and chewing efficiency. In particular, the mandibular area has more side effects such as pain than the maxilla has. It gets worse when the patient has more absorption of alveolar bone, but the implant treatment is often interrupted due to the existence of the inferior alveolar nerve. In this case, a patient treated with the all-on-4 method by placing the implant in the anterior part of mandible and with the conventional complete denture for the maxilla has maintained without complications and was satisfied with the restoration both functionally and esthetically.
Absorption ; Bite Force ; Denture, Complete ; Gingiva ; Humans ; Mandible ; Mandibular Nerve ; Mastication ; Maxilla ; Methods

The purpose of this project was to evaluate whether daily fruit juice consumption could reduce the DNA damage in healthy subjects. The study was performed using 67 healthy volunteers (29 smokers, 38 nonsmokers) who were supplemented with 480 ml of grape juice for 8 weeks. Eight weeks of grape juice consumption did not change any anthropometric parameters. Lymphocyte DNA damage before the study was significantly greater (p < 0.05) in smoker than nonsmoker, but, grape juice consumption significantly reduced DNA damage in both smoker (26%) and nonsmoker (17%) to the level where there was no difference remained between the two groups after the intervention trial. This preventive effect of grape juice against DNA damage was not affected by sex of the subjects in non-smokers. Plasma alpha-carotene, lycopene and gamma-totopherol was significantly increased after the trial in smokers, while erythrocyte catalase was significantly increased in both smokers and nonsmokers. Total radical-trapping antioxidant potential (TRAP) level in all subjects was significantly reduced after the intervention, while GSH-Px activity was increased only in nonsmokers. These results suggests that daily consumption of grape juice may protect DNA damage in peripheral lymphocytes, and supports the hypothesis that grape juice might exert their effect partially via a decrease in oxidative damage to DNA in humans partly by improving their antioxidative defense system.
Catalase ; DNA Damage* ; DNA* ; Erythrocytes ; Fruit ; Glutathione Peroxidase ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Lymphocytes* ; Plasma ; Vitis*

Newcastle disease (ND) caused by virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is a highly contagious viral disease of poultry. Virulent NDVs characteristically have a multibasic amino acid sequence (virulence motif) such as (112)RRQKRF(117) at the cleavage site of the precusor fusion (F0) protein. The antigenic and immunogenic characteristics of the virulence motif (112)RRQKRF(117) in the F0 protein of virulent NDVs were investigated. Epitope mapping analysis revealed that a RRQKRF-specific monoclonal antibody 4G2 recognized the KRF section of the motif. A synthetic peptide bearing the RRQKRF motif reacted strongly with sera from virulent NDV (with RRQKRF motif)-infected chickens. These sera also showed reactivity to peptides bearing other virulence motifs ((112)KRQKRF(117), (112)RRQRRF(117) and (112)RRRKRF(117)) but not an avirulence motif ((112)GRQGRL(117)) by ELISA. The synthetic bearing RRQKRF motif reacted with 60% to 91% of sera taken from surviving chickens on ND outbreak farms but not with sera from vaccinated birds, even though most of the sera had antibody to NDV due to vaccination. This indicates that the virulence motif has the potential to differentiate virulent NDV infected birds from vaccinated birds.
Amino Acid Motifs/*immunology ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Animals ; Chickens ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/veterinary ; Epitope Mapping/veterinary ; Newcastle Disease/*immunology ; Newcastle disease virus/*genetics/pathogenicity ; Poultry Diseases/*immunology/*virology ; Serologic Tests/veterinary ; Viral Fusion Proteins/*genetics/immunology ; Virulence/genetics

INTRODUCTION: To prevent hemodialysis-related infections, it is important to maintain hemodialysis system without microbial contamination. In May 2003, routine surveillance showed that dialysis water from dialysis port was contaminated with bacteria. To identify the causes of the contamination, we conducted an investigation as follows. METHODS: Patients undergoing dialysis were carefully monitored to see whether evidences of pyrogenic reactions or infections were present. Factors that could have influence on bacterial contamination in hemodialysis systems were thoroughly examined. In addition, microbiologic surveillances were done 7 times in 1 month. RESULTS: Although pyrogenic reactions or bacteremia did not occur, R. pickettii was repeatedly isolated above the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) standards from almost all dialysis units. Bacterial counts of specimens were higher in the proximal part of the water supply tube than the other parts in all dialysis machines. The colony count of R. pickettii exceeded the maximum level of technical limit in the specimens collected from the dialysis machines in the early morning after intermission of 48 hours. The structure of the supply tube was suspected as the origin of the colonization because stagnant water is a reservoir for bacterial multiplication. After remodeling the structure of the water supply tube, neither R. pickettii nor any other bacteria were isolated. CONCLUSION: Our investigation successfully identified the source of R. pickettii contamination of reverse osmosis water. Appropriate corrective measures for water distribution systems of hemodialysis center could prevent outbreak of dialysis-associated illnesses.
Bacteremia ; Bacteria ; Bacterial Load ; Colon ; Dialysis ; Humans ; Osmosis ; Ralstonia ; Ralstonia pickettii ; Renal Dialysis ; Water ; Water Supply